Our northern rain forest weather rides a pendulum between the seasons. For last two weeks it brought us serious winter with the cold and heavy snowfall that comes with it. Today. it brings Juneau an early spring day.  It’s well above zero. The sun shines but the wind does not blow. With Aki I am cross country skiing on a long flat meadow dotted with dark green islands of compact spruce trees.  A fragile mist rises just above the snow but will soon be vanquished by the rising sun.

It froze last night to cover the meadow’s deep wet snow with a crust. Aki trots easily along it. When moving through the meadow’s willow barrier my skis break through. Seeking easier passage I fight my way along the meadow’s edge and drop onto a little stream.  We find faint tracks that lead to slides formed by the river otters that have colonized the meadow. Given all the recent rain I‘d expected thin ice here but it easily holds my weight. Downstream we find the answer in the form of a beaver dam that turned the steam into a long winding pond. A snow covered beaver den and their wood pile straddle the dam, which has  become a waterfall. It’s all open water below the dam.

Denied an ice highway by the beavers I move onto the meadow proper and find it easy going.  A heavier crust supports my weight so I can actually do the kick slide kick that makes skiing so much fun. Far from flat the meadow snow forms a field of small domes, maybe 2 feet across. low wrinkled ridges protect the northern edge of each dome as if the resident mink expect a siege by mice.

The sun almost blinds me on our return loop across the meadow so I guide us into a grove of tortured bull pine trees.  Each still manages a show of long green needles but I barely notice them for the many flags of yellow Spanish moss hanging from every branch. Each flag sparkles with backlit drops of snowmelt.